Kobe Bryant: 10 incredible stories

[fiddy]

Guess what? Another Kobe thread.

KOBE Bryant has entered the twilight of his career.
After 18 years in the NBA, five championship titles and 16 All-Star appearances all with the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s hard to imagine a league without him.
He celebrated his 36th birthday last week, and while he says he still has two years left in the tank, his body is much older.
“It’s because I’m 70 in basketball years,” Bryant says.
Since suffering a season-ending Achilles tear in 2013, Bryant will be making his triumphant return to Staples Center in October.
Here are 10 incredible stories about the man.

1. He once lost a one-on-one game to some Chinese kid
“This is the part you don’t see on the viral videos,” wrote Chris Ballard in a special feature with Bryant for Sports Illustrated. “He thought he had the game in hand, with four points tallied in a game to five. Then the tallest of the Chinese kids, wearing a number 10 jersey, sank an impressive 17-foot fade-away bank shot on Kobe to score his third point. After which number 10 proceeded to score on the other two kids while Kobe watched helplessly from the sidelines. Ballgame. Some random Chinese kid just beat Kobe in a one-on-one contest.”
2. Kobe got his rematch and destroyed the poor guy

Kobe gets his revenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qN5YHLilrI


3. He is obsessed with this Michael Jackson story
“Earlier this year, Bryant heard a story about Michael Jackson, one of his idols,” Ballard wrote. “It was about how, before Thriller came out, Jackson was obsessed with the Bee Gees, and in particular their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, which then was the best-selling album of all time.
“Determined to eclipse the Bee Gees, Jackson began listening to Saturday Night Fever over and over. Such was his obsession that for two years straight, Jackson told friends, he listened to the album 10 times a day, until he knew every note, every beat.
“Until he’d internalised it, deciphered its magic and taken it for his own. A year later Thriller came out. It went on to sell more than 60 million copies and become the best-selling album of all time.
“When Bryant first heard this anecdote, he was ecstatic. ‘I f***ing love that story,’ he said.”
4. When Steve Nash called him a ...
Showtime has been filming a documentary about the fourth-highest pointscorer in NBA history. As part of that project, the film’s director Gotham Chopra asked a number of professional basketballers to describe Bryant in three words.
Legendary point guard Steve Nash had the best answer.
“Mother ... f***ing ... a***hole,” Nash said.
Bryant thought that was “tremendous”.

5. The nasty text he sent LeBron James
When James made “The Decision” to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to chase championship rings with the Miami Heat, Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers were the two-time reigning NBA champions.
“With a brutal seven-game victory over the Celtics in the bank for Bryant, the 2010 off-season is dominated by LeBron James’ decision to leave Cleveland for Miami,” Lakers writer Kevin Ding wrote.
“What matters to Bryant is Phil Jackson agreeing to return to coach the Lakers again in pursuit of a third consecutive NBA title. Bryant sends James a text message.”
This was the text from Kobe to LeBron: “Go ahead and get another MVP, if you want. And find the city you want to live in. But we’re going to win the championship. Don’t worry about it.”

6. Bryant networks with the best of them
He’s already setting himself up for his career after basketball, though he won’t say what it entails.
“Bryant recently cold-called Apple executive Jonathan Ive and Oprah Winfrey, among others, asking for business advice. He is curious in a manner most athletes aren’t. He wants to know how and why things work,” according to Sports Illustrated.

7. He hates rewarding losers
“This thing where we seem to be OK for kids to receive medals for fourth place … It’s bullsh*t,” Bryant said.
8. Bryant looks at having son like it’s a business opportunity
“Gotham Chopra (son of author Deepak Chopra and good friend of Bryant) introduced his seven-year-old son to Kobe. Afterwards, Bryant turned to Gotham and said, ‘I’m thinking of creating one of those,’ as if a son were a product,” Ballard wrote.

9. His run-in with Dwyane Wade
In the 2012 All-Star game, Byrant had his nose broken and was diagnosed with a concussion after copping a blow to the face from Dwyane Wade.
He finished the game and broke Michael Jordan’s career All-Star scoring record in the process.
Before leaving Orlando’s Amway Center, Bryant was sure to make one stop, as told in the book Relentless by Tim Grover.
“Kobe wanted to see him face-to-face before he’d go to the hospital. It wasn’t about vengeance or retaliation or settling the score. It was about the law and order of the jungle, two animals instinctively facing off, the lion king getting up on that rock so the rest of the jungle could see who was in charge. One direct, silent look that says, ‘I still own this, motherf****r.’”

10. He doesn’t want your pity
Bryant doesn’t want one of those fairytale endings to his career, where everyone loves him just because.
“If you booed me for 18, 19 years, boo me for the 20th. That’s the game, man,” he said.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-...-1227042098472
Dont know how credible of source this is, but some of these are entertaining.

[Encre92]

To complement this great thread, here is 10 incredible records by Kobe:

[AboutBuckets]

To complement this great thread, here is 10 incredible records by Kobe:

Suck a d*ck Dragic

[Encre92]

Please don't get it wrong, I am a huge Kobe fan myself (been watching Kobe since his Shq-riding days). I'm just contributing to the thread with some impressive Kobe feats.

How great is our gawd.

[Heavincent]

This was the text from Kobe to LeBron: